Pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi, are responsible for numerous diseases or infections, including some very dangerous and potentially fatal diseases and infections, that affect humans, animals, and plants. Environments, such as health-care environments (e.g., hospitals) and restaurants, are particularly susceptible to the transmission or spread of such pathogens. Indeed, healthcare associated infections (HAIs), which are caused by pathogens, such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), and mycobacterium tuberculosis, transmitted through, for example, the air, person-to-person contact, and skin shedding in healthcare environments, are an increasingly dangerous problem for the healthcare industry. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, HAIs cause at least 1.7 million illnesses and 99,000 deaths in acute care hospitals in the U.S. alone every year. Pathogens can also serve to spoil food products (e.g., fruits, vegetables) and result in the loss of goods and raw materials in various industrial processes, for example chemical processing, brewing and distillation, food packaging, and other processes that require non-contaminated environments.
Significant resources have already been committed to preventing and controlling pathogens in these environments, but to this point, these resources have not yielded the desired results. Some existing methods of pathogen control, e.g., those involving hygiene, have proven to be labor-intensive, difficult to monitor, and, most importantly, of limited effectiveness (e.g., are only temporarily effective, only deactivate some pathogens). Other known methods of pathogen control, e.g., those involving UV-light, ozone and chemical fumigation, while successful, are toxic to humans. Thus, environments requiring decontamination must be sealed off and cannot be used during the process.